Single-dish observing modes are available for using the Total Power
(TP) Array as part of the ALMA Compact Array (ACA). The use of the TP
Array is limited to spectral line observations in Bands 3-8. No TP
Array Band 9 and Band 10 observations are offer...

You can observe continuum by using the 7-m Array but you cannot with
the Total Power (TP) Array. Also the TP array is not offered for Bands
9 or 10. Please also see Appendix A of the Proposer's Guide [1].
Links:
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[1]
http://almascience.org/proposin...

Yes, you may request monitoring observations with the standalone ACA.
However, this is not supported by the OT: if you enter an angular
resolution corresponding to the synthesised beamsize of the ACA and at
the same time click the Time Constraints radi...

You can specify a range of dates when your observations should be
executed in the ALMA Observing Tool. Proposals may involve
time-critical, multiple-epoch observations, and continuous monitoring
of a target over a fixed time interval, but their executi...

Yes. A Director Discretionary Time (DDT) proposal for the current
cycle can be submitted anytime during that cycle. One important thing
for the DDT proposal submission is that OT FOR THE CURRENT CYCLE
should be used (even when OT for the next cycle is ...

Registration in the Science Portal of the Principal Investigator (PI) and of all co-Investigators (co-Is) is required for submission of ALMA proposals. Furthermore, this service is available at any time.
To avoid last-minute problems with registration...

By default, the ALMA Observatory will identify and conduct all
calibrations that are necessary. Detailed information on calibration
and the default ALMA approach can be found in Chapter "Calibration and
Calibration Strategies" and Appendix "Calibration...

We assume that the input model is a single Stokes I plane, and that
the object to be simulated in CASA is an unpolarized continuum source.
The bandwidth of the observations can be set using the "inwidth"
parameter of the task simobserve [1]. Set thi...

Yes. ALMA Sensitivity Calculator now takes into account the shadowing
effect, by reducing the effective antenna surface area according to
the target declination. More detailed information is available in
Chapter "ALMA Sensitivity Calculator" of Technical ...

In solar observations, when the lifetime of your target structure is
long (> a few days, like a sunspot), your observation will only be
carried out if your target structure is present on the Sun. If your
proposal is ranked as Grade A and your target st...

The "refdate" and "hourangle" keywords can be used in the CASA task
[1] simobserve for time specification. Also, one can produce an ms for
a full track (e.g. 8 or 12-hour) and then use flagdata to flag
specific time ranges prior to imaging the data.
A CA...

The CASA simulation task simobserve simulate an observation based on
a given antenna configuration, which is specified in the antenna
position file. A user may wish to see the effect of combining data
from two or more separate observations, taken with ...

You need not give coordinates for a proposal to validate successfully.
For a target-of-opportunity (ToO) observations of an unknown target
(e.g. a gamma ray burst), or observations of a moving target, you only
need to specify the name (e.g. GRB1) and leav...

Information about polarization in Cycle 4 can be found in the ALMA
Cycle 4 Proposer's Guide [1] section A.7.
For Cycle 4, on top of the dual polarizations (XX, YY) and single
polarization modes (XX), observations to measure the full intrinsic
pol...

Information about polarization in Cycle 5 can be found in the ALMA
Cycle 5 Proposer's Guide [1] Appendix A.7.
For Cycle 5, in addition to the dual polarization (XX, YY) and single
polarization modes (XX), observations to measure the full intrinsic
p...

In the Control & Performance editor of the OT you can choose between
two types of time-constrained observations:
* single visit: the observation needs to be executed only once
within either one or several possible time windows. You can enter
these ...

For interferometric observations, we have to observe a quasar as a
phase calibrator every ~10 minutes for single-pointing, ~5 minuets for
MOSAIC observations at Bands 3 and 6. Therefore, the duration of a
continuous solar observation is approximately 10 o...

In each Science Goal, sources are selected in one of two ways: by
specifying a rectangular field, or by specifying individual positions,
with or without offsets. Each involves some restrictions. A proposal
may contain up to a total of 150 pointings ...

The Observing Tool (OT) version of the sensitivity calculator uses
two distinct formulas depending on whether a double sideband (DSB)
receiver is being used, or not. The equation used for the Java applet
and the GUI that is accessible from within the O...

It is not required to accompany your proposal with results from
simulated ALMA observations (see Section "Science Case"of the
Proposer's Guide [1]). However, there are several situations that it
may be wise to use CASA's simulation capabilities to unde...

Proposals from the same team pursuing similar science but with
different targets and PIs are acceptable. As there is a single
international review process, such proposals will very likely be
assigned to the same review panel, which will be given instructi...

Proposal teams that submit a proposal to observe some or all science
goals of a currently active but unfinished B- or C-grade project
should identify their new proposal as a "Resubmission" by entering the
proposal code in the Resubmission field in the ...

Individual targets that are larger than 1/3 of the Field of View (FOV)
of the 12-m Array will require a Nyquist sampled mosaic to obtain
uniform sensitivity across the field due to the sensitivity fall-off
towards the edges of the primary beam. This can b...

In the ALMA system, no portion of the baseband or spectral window can
lie outside of either the IF or RF range. This fact alone does not
present any unforeseen limitations on what can be observed within the
specified ranges. However, an issue arises be...

The scientific and technical justification guidelines are given in
Sections "Preparing the Scientific Justification" and "Technical
Justification" of the Proposer's Guide. [1]
The scientific justification must be submitted as a single PDF
document. ...

Images made from interferometric data are usually subject to
calibration errors that limit the quality of the image. Errors
remaining after phase referencing are most common and move flux around
the map, lowering the peak flux density and increasing th...

Spectral dynamic range is the ratio of the brightnesses of the
strongest and weakest detectable features in one channel of a spectrum
in a spectral line image with obvious generalizations to smoothed or
integrated data. Since the weakest detectable fea...

In Cycle 4, standard observing modes are those that have been used in
previous Cycles and for which the data can be reduced by the pipeline.
Please see Section 5.2 of the Cycle 4 Proposer's Guide [1].
Non-standard modes are observing modes that a...

In Cycle 5, standard observing modes are those that have been used in
previous Cycles and for which the data can be reduced by the pipeline.
Please see Section 5.2 of the Cycle 5 Proposer's Guide [1].
Non-standard modes are observing modes that are ...

The QA0 criteria that have been adopted by ALMA requires an amplitude
wiggles across the spectral window of < 3 dB on the autocorrelations
(not due to atmospheric features). QA0 is given SEMIPASS if the
bandpass calibrator signal is too weak, with ampl...

CASA task simobserve [1] is capable of adding thermal and/or phase
noise to simulated observations of a known intensity distribution,
provided that one has an estimate of the average precipitable water
vapour (user_pwv).
To choose an appropriate val...

All of the High Priority ALMA projects from previous and current
cycles are listed at the \"High Priority Projects\" page [1] of the
Science Portal. Priority C, or "Filler", projects are not listed here.
Targets are not listed at the Science Portal...

Representative array configuration files for Cycles 1 and after are
linked to from the "CASA Simulator and Configuration Files [1]"
section of the Tools page [2] in the ALMA Science Portal.
Configuration files for Cycle 0 are available from the Cycle 0...

The LO1 frequency for solar observations is fixed to 100 GHz for Band
3 and 239 GHz for Band 6. Only proposals for continuum observations
will be accepted. For the interferometric observations, these will be
obtained using the low spectral resolution (TDM...